Transitioning from a Regular Life to one with an Invisible Illness

Tag Archives: return to wellness

Welcome 2014!! We’re all planning how the next year will be better and how we will try and improve upon ourselves, but what lessons have we learned from the past year.

I heard this quote for the first time about 10 years ago, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” and never has there been a truer saying, yet we continually do the same thing over and over again (at least I do) and hope that the outcome will be different. Does that mean I’m insane (lol), I hope not.

For example:

I continually go back to the same doctors, even after they tell me there’s nothing more they can do for me and that I just need to deal and adjust

I continue friendships with people that I know are selfish and sometimes hurtful in their actions towards me

I keep taking the same medicines and supplements, even though I feel no real improvement with my symptoms

So what can I change in this new year to try and make a real difference in my life?

I can and will seek out new doctors, who are encouraging and offer new treatment options

I can and will stop listening to all the doctors that just prescribe endless medicines without any real promise of help and that have possible negative long term side effects

I can and will make more educated decisions regarding my health and well being, as the doctors know less about my day to day struggles than I do

I can and will spend less time with those people in my life that just suck the energy and life out of me

I can and will spend more time with those people that energize me and lift my spirits

I can and will spend more time doing the things that I really enjoy doing and save my limited energy for these activities

I can and will seek out new creative activities that fill my heart with happiness

So as my journey in 2014 begins, I hope that this year will bring a return to wellness and that on January 1, 2015 I can look back on today and realize that it was the day I began to break old patterns and take more control of my life.

As I sat around the Thanksgiving dinner table, I wondered how each and every one of the people sitting around me would cope if they suddenly woke up with CFS tomorrow. I don’t think anyone of them would handle the situation as graciously and as humbly as I have. I could be wrong, as some people rise to the occasion and I’m not wishing that any of my loved ones or dear friends, ever have to deal with what I am dealing with. But I do often wonder if anybody can put themselves in my shoes and envision the realities of my life.

Then today, I get this email from The CFIDS Association and clicked on the link and watched a video, which asked the question: What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and were well?

Everyone in the video answered with normal everyday things that people take for granted: getting a job, going on a family vacation, finishing up college; spending a full day with grand kids. I know at the top of my list would be to take a walk, a very, very long walk.

When I was healthy, I never sat and worried about getting sick or suffering with a long chronic condition. I think if I woke up well tomorrow, I would always worry that CFS is like the devil sitting on my shoulder waiting to attack again. Could I ever really shake this experience and not be afraid that with the next step I take or movement I make, I’m going to be in pain and suffer with extreme fatigue. Or maybe the reverse would be true and I would start living life to the fullest, taking advantage of every opportunity presented to me and not shying away from things.

At the very end of the video, it asked the reverse question, What would you want to do today if you knew you’d have CFS tomorrow? The purpose of the video is to raise money for additional research and I hope that it makes people think about what their life would be like if they woke up and couldn’t move or think clearly. If their life was undeniably different from when then went to sleep and different not in a good way.

I am just not sure that most people think that way, unless illness has touched their life. I hope I am wrong and this video raises a lot of money so that the cause of this mysterious illness that desimates the lives of its sufferers can be found and I can wake up well tomorrow.

I guess how I handle a return to wellness is something that I can only dream about right now. I will cross that bridge when I get there and I hope I do get there.